everything is better with sugar!

Ode to New York Part 4 – Copy Cat Levain Bakery Cookie

We have reached the last part of our Ode to New York series, and what better way to end it, than with these amazing jumbo ooey chocolate chip cookies!

If you live in New York, or ever visited New York, I recommend that you take yourself to the Upper West Side to the Levain Bakery. If you have never been to, or walked by it, if they are open, the line is out the door and around! It is absolutely amazing what type of baked goods they make here. From sweet breads, sticky buns, baguettes, to loaves the list goes on!

If you haven’t already, there are plenty of these jumbo cookies posted all over Instagram, that’s how popular they are! My faves are the videos that show someone breaking this cookie in half, absolute drool!

Small bakery, delicious treats!

I have yet to visit this bakery myself, but clients at my job have brought this to us on occasion, and they taste like heaven. What makes these cookies so unique, besides their large size, is the combination of the crunchy outside and the soft melted inside. They key to making this cookie is to cook it at a high temperature for a short period of time.

Now, while I cannot obtain the recipe itself, if only :), I found this great baking blog Modern Honey, who I think has come as close as physically possible to the original. (Recipe at the bottom of the post)

This recipe is not only quick, but really easy to make, so long as you bake at the correct time, these beauties will come out perfect!

Alright below is the arsenal of ingredients you will need!

1 cup Cold Butter, cut into small cubes

1 cup Brown Sugar

½ cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1½ cups Cake Flour

1½ cups Flour

1 teaspoon Cornstarch

¾ teaspoon Baking Soda

¾ teaspoon Salt

2 cups Chocolate Chips

2 cups Walnuts, roughly chopped (I opted out of walnuts)

The recipe mentions that if you do not have cake flour on hand, that you may substitute with all-purpose flour. The only thing that I omitted from the recipe was the walnuts. Not the biggest fan, and some of my co-workers have a nut allergy, so in order for everyone to enjoy, I decided to not use — which by the way they still tasted great!

First you want to mix your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. This is both cake and all-purpose flour, salt, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and set aside.

With a stand or hand mixer, you are going to combined the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. With your butter, you want it cold, and chopped into cubes. The recipe suggests to mix these 3 ingredients together for 4 minutes to allow them to incorporate well.

Once that has been mixed, you will then add your two eggs, one at a time and mix well before each addition. When your wet ingredients are all added, you will take the bowl of dry ingredients and add it to your mixture. Mix only until just combined, do not over mix!

What some people had commented on, was how to get that center of the cookie to look so chocolatey and melty. What the recipe author suggested was she had used chunks of chopped chocolate along with the chocolate morsels, to add some texture and get that melted gooey look in the center. So I did just that! I used the Ghirardelli semi sweet morsels, and the semi sweet chocolate baking bar. I used roughly 1 1/2 cups of morsels, and a half cup for the chopped up baking bar. Whatever it is you decide to use, it will taste delicious!

After mixing in your dry ingredients, you will then stir in your chocolate chips/chunks or both.

Jumbo Cookies!

Now, the recipe yields 8 cookies, so keep in mind when you are putting these on your baking sheet, they are going to be huge! You could make smaller ones, but the true Levain Bakery cookie is a huge thick cookie and that’s what we are looking for! So go ahead and grab four mounds and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat. The recipe suggest using a light color baking sheet, but since mine are all dark, I had to find the lightest one I had :).

Set your oven to 410 degrees. The key to Modern Honey’s recipe is to bake at a much higher temperature so the outside browns quickly, while keeping the inside gooey. Because I am using a darker baking sheet, the recipe had called for 9-11 minutes of baking. I opted to check at 8 minutes for fear of burning them. When in doubt, it is better to under cook these than over cook.

Turns out, for me, 410 degrees at 8 minutes was perfect! Nice and golden cookie on the outside. These are not the type of cookies you can munch on right out of the oven. In order for them to set, you will need to let them cool for at least 15 minutes. The thought of waiting that long to dive into these cookies seems like absolute torture, but, it is essential.

The gooey-ness 🙂

My husband gobbled up 2 of these, I could barely get through one! These are not for the faint of cookie!

Serves 8, preferably with a glass of milk. Enjoy!

Don’t forgot to following me on Instagram @Phreya to see all my baked creations!